At a meeting of the Coconino Amateur Radio Club in Flagstaff, Dan SHEARER, N7YIQ, introduced the club to the ARRL® podcast The Doctor Will See You Now—also known as The Doctor Is In.
As I perused the Google Play Store with my Android phone for something else, I found something interesting. There are several apps which lead you to amateur radio podcasts.
I found one called—interestingly enough—Ham Radio podcast. I downloaded it at our Williams amateur radio club meeting. It not only accesses the ARRL® Doctor Is In, but the ARRL® news feed and ARES® newsletter, as well.
I also found one for what I thought was the Arizona Emergency Information Network. It turned out to be the Maricopa County Emergency Network. Interestingly it is taken from their over-the-air emergency Network.
There is one called AmateurLogic.TV. This one apparently gives lessons in amateur radio and licensing exam information. Currently they are running a course for the General license. I haven’t listened to a full podcast yet.
There are several others that look interesting. One is Linux in the Ham Shack. If you are interested in an alternative to Windows, Linux is just that. With some effort you can run some Windows programs under Linux. It is better, however, to simply download the free Linux programs available online and stay away from Windows.
Another nice feature (If you have the memory) is that you can download many of the podcasts to listen off-line. They are MP3 format so you can transfer them to CD and listen to them as you drive.
The one thing I noticed about the app is that it takes some time to buffer and start the podcast. That could be because I am using a cheap ZTE phone that does not even allow you to move apps to the SD card. If your Android phone or tablet has a decent amount of internal memory and speed, the buffering process might be shorter and thus the podcast might come up quicker. My cheap ZTE phone tends to take time buffering the podcast. Also I cannot transfer the app to my SD card.
I am only reviewing one of the several apps that access amateur radio podcasts. You can download others and experiment.
Amateur radio is what you make of it. If you just want to get the license and sit on it, you can do that. I know of people who got a license and never use it which is really sad because they are missing a lot. Maybe you obtained a license just for emergency use. There are those of us, however, that like to try new things: Explore new areas of the hobby. Along with the many amateur radio magazines and articles on the Internet, podcasts may help you do just that.
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